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Strata 1 Book of Immersion V1, The Beginning (Purpose)
The Book of Immersion
Volume 1
Strata 1
The Beginning
(Purpose)
From Immersion the Musical
By Tale Teller Club
Lose yourself in the safety of books.
The Book of Immersion
Volume 1
Strata 1
The Beginning
(Purpose)
By Tale Teller Club
It's Life Song Lyrics
You wake up in the morning
You don’t know where you are
You do a quick 360
Looks like you’re making art
You’re Caught in a bubble
‘tween real and fake
You’re never really sure
Which ducker’s on the take
It’s just life my friend
But it’s the only one you get
It’s just life my friend
You only get one shot
So you get up off the floor
The sun is coming through
You get these freaky feelings
You don’t know what to do
You’d better watch your back
Cos bruises gonna hurt
It’s gonna take a while for you
To prove your worth.
We’re all in the dark
Just walking in the park
The more you try
It just gets worse
The more you want
The deeper the curse
It’s just life my friend
But it’s the only one you get
©2024 Sarnia de la Maré FRSA
Welcome to Immersion
You Have Reached Strata 1
What is your purpose here? What drives your desires and achievements? Is there a greater good you seek? Is there anything more important than yourself? You are but a fleck of dust within a universe you cannot control.
And yet, decisions you make today will affect everything around you in an unprecedented future. Your past actions, the very existence of you, have made a difference to the world. What is your past? Have you learned lessons? Are you controlled by unrecognisable forces or are you your own God?
Welcome to Immersion, may your journey go well.
Renyke's inner motors began to whirr.
He had put himself into voluntary shutdown during the dark-cycle in order to save power.
The position within the human household as a domestic servant had been more than suitable and had sustained him all of his life till now, albeit a short one in human years. He was around a decade old which was quite a long life for an android. New technologies and updates marked regular upgrades and there was little call for used 'droids'.
Now, here on the cold paved ground in the open air, Renyke could feel changes in his body and surroundings. There were unfamiliar sounds and an ever-present white noise from the activities of strangers in a cityscape he had not seen before.
An unrecognised sense of trepidation washed around him and occupied his thoughts. Renyke was not programmed to experience fear, the feeling must have been something else.
From the start of his operational cycle, Renyke had performed the necessary housekeeping duties within an interior domain.
It was a twenty-four-hour installation that bound him by duty and programming to put humans first. To any human, until today, Renyke had been subordinate.
Things had become difficult after the arrival of another android, a female version 12 named Ableteen, who was considered the fastest domestic to date, (this 6th day of the 11th Moonturn 2289).
Ableteens were able to preserve battery power with a hybrid electro-solar panel on the back and shoulders. This worked well in the new modern glassed apartments of the suburban zones. These cutting-edge designer houses were maximising sunlight like never before in the new Midcast Housing Projects.
Some of the new apartments even came with the Ableteens installed and ready to help the occupiers enjoy the best life possible.
Renyke was not the only older domestic robotic servant to have had their contract abruptly terminated. Some were simply dismantled, some were thrown into crushers still working, and some were being recycled into experimental hybrids for illegal purposes.
Renyke noted that although he was now a vulnerable street-bot, he was spared a wasted end. Perhaps, now without enslavement, there would be new experiences. He had never cared before, after all, he was an emotionless droid. But today here in unfamiliar surroundings there was some sort of excitement. Something was calling him towards adventure.
All robots since 2050 had been installed with a clear-mode which enabled eco-friendly destruction. Parts had to be handed into the municipal facility to avoid issues with landfills and accidental hybrids.
There was talk of an underclass of feral bots who were made out of parts from the old dumping grounds before the eco-legislation had been implemented. They say that some of these bots were made by the bots themselves; innards and parts that had communicated and joined forces across the debris of twisted metal and wires.
Mabel, the daughter from the family Renyke had worked for, had un-twinned him from the household appliances and deleted the software that had once meant he could never leave.
Together they had upgraded his operating system with drivers available via an underground organisation called Redact.
Renyke had been created to blend in, in the midcasts, but Mabel had decided to mess him up a bit for a new life in the outer zones. Safety was in the camouflage of the ordinary.
Some robots had been designed to look aggressive, others looked like adult child hybrids who were designed as pleasure bots. Generally speaking, all robots found the open streets difficult. Artificial intelligence-led service androids were legally programmed to be submissive and they were picked on and abused in their short lifespan. Even strong exteriors would eventually break under such conditions.
The streets in the outer zones were crime-ridden. Since the pandemics, no law-abiding human citizen walked outside. For the most part, humans in the zones were there to partake in vice and black market trading. Androids were there to be used, abused and discarded.
Renyke's insides were a complex mass of wires and electrical paraphernalia that ran a well-balanced functioning machine.
But the outside world was alien and Renyke needed to explore it to become fully educated on the customs and the environment. He was programmed to learn. His algorithms had been set to gain an advantage in unchartered terrain by observing closely the details of situations. This was key to making robust decisions for survival. He also had a reliable and omniscient personal operating system to guide him.
Together, Mabel and Renyke had researched what they could but there were pockets of the outside world that had been effectively erased because of a system of cloaking. Areas beyond
the midcast projects were cloaked in fake maps that even the most sophisticated satellites were unable to penetrate or decipher. Distances and information about the terrain were usually falsified.
The records had become unreliable because of the sabotage of information that had all been digitised after the warmings.
It had become a confusing mass of fake news and blurred living memories.
But after the tech wars with China and Russia, and the pandemics, there were so few old people left and memorial information was mostly unreliable.
Many myths prevailed.
Inside the Midcast Projects, things were different, they were much more organised.
Legislators and the executive had rectified the situation and made records of everything.
The government had recorded every human's iris print and DNA before they were born. It was a rule that any pregnant human, male or female, had to inform the legislators and they were scanned immediately. It was impossible to get through life in the Midcast Zones without being categorised and having all your data recorded for the rest of your life.
But beyond midcasts, here in the natural light, even the smells were unrecognisable.
It took just a few seconds to warm up and reboot.
The surroundings were scanned as Renyke checked the 360-degree orbital range from the silent detectors inside his POS.
He was fully charged and his battery life would last months.
Suddenly there was a warning....
Unknown Danger Approaching ...... Left Ground Level
Renyke engaged his internal antenna and watched a furry creature scurry past. His scanners perused the information app.
The POS informed Renyke about the creature.
Rat, rodent, possible food source
Renyke engaged his arm extension and snatched the rat from the ground.
He brought it close to his face and studied it, carefully analysing its properties.
To be continued…….
©2022-2024 Sarnia de la Mare
Tale Teller Club Publishing
From Immersion the Musical
By Tale Teller Club
Lose yourself in the safety of books.
The Tale Teller Club is a captivating platform that weaves together art, literature, and music. Founded by British author, artist, and composer Sarnia de la Maré (also known as iServalan), it offers a multisensory experience for the cerebral cortex. Here are some features of the club:
- iServalan Show: A podcast covering topics like AI, culture, and music.
- Tale Teller Club Academy of Arts: An online learning platform teaching skills such as drawing, dancing, and playing instruments.
- Tale Teller Club Publishing: Produces and distributes audiobooks, ebooks, and short plays.
- Tale Teller Club Inked: A show spotlighting tattoo designs and techniques.
- Music Therapy: Based on the theory of Rife Healing Vibrations, exploring resonance therapies.
You can explore their enchanting world on their YouTube channel and Twitter. 🌟🎨📚🎶12
Animation Films by Tale Teller Club for the Book of Immersion Series are available on YouTube
Strata 7 Immersion V1
Welcome to Immersion, you have reached Strata 7
Humans have developed uniqueness from animals through a process of cognitive evolution.
They are exceptional cultural learners and can read situations.
The cultural and socio-political environment in which humans have evolved has led them to acquire the cognitive skills, particularly mathematical, to support a sophisticated disposition along with a capacity for reciprocal cooperation. Humans understand conceptual ideas of property and exchange value.
Outside there was an optimistic sun and the people bussied around the market unaware of any of the commotion that had occurred in the bank.
The POS informed Renyke that he had lost negligible battery power and there was no damage to his mechanical or bionic structures.
The robot-dog and the cat had waited patiently outside the bank and now trotted diligently at their owners' sides.
Maybeline returned to Renyke's pocket for a nap.
'You got my *bits?' asked the woman
'For nearly getting us killed?' Asked Renyke contemplating the difference between, irony, sarcasm and humour. POS began to explain but Renyke shut her out. He really did not want to know at this juncture.
Back on the main street Flex approached smiling and jaunty. Renyke was reassured to see him.
'I need a vehicle Flex, something to get me to where I am going,' said Renyke.
'Yes, yes, yes Mr. Leather Man, where you goin' is where I'm goin'. Let's find a veee-hicle. Jerome, he is the car man, he got cars, and bikes and scoots..... and copters, and airships so they say.'
'Take me to Jerome,' said Renyke.
Flex took Renyke into a disused concrete building as the robo-dog curled up and waited outside.
There are the echoes of voices, activity and motor engines being revved from another part of the building. There is a smell of fuel and mumbled communications. Somewhere too there is music.
Flex beckoned Renyke to Jerome's office, a ramshackle room filled with books. More books than Renyke had ever seen. Books were no longer used in most homes or schools and the paper shortages after the warmings had meant that they were no longer being produced commercially. Paper had become heavily taxed and there were also problems with scritters.
Scritters were large crawling insects that had been genetically modified in a laboratory by the Russian military. They were a fusion of a cockroach and a wasp but there wings had become almost defunct in the process. They could get a few feet above the ground but not for very long. Scritters were highly protective and thus easily trained.
They looked deformed with big insect heads and metal body parts. At birth scritters are born with a soft back. They seek protection from any material that offers a hard shell. Because of the huge landfill areas all around the world, the rubbish of hundred's of years had provided the perfect materials for protection. Plastics and metals were abundant in the *fills and the Urchs and Scritters were generally seen sifting through the piles of discarded trash looking for their personal treasures.
'A car you say?' asked Jerome. 'I got plenty, but the fuel....we got no fuel. We are working on some alternatives, but all prototypes so far. They cut off our fuel after the riots. And the food supplies. I have been missing gummies, I loved those.'
Renyke nodded as Jerome continued....
'Transport is a big problem. You'll be better off walking, my friend, if you can get through the tunnels. But there are booby traps all around the perimeters here in the zones.'
Renyke checks the POS for details but the tunnels are unchartered.
'I have a hybrid cart,' continued Jerome. 'It runs on solar but only for about 3 hours per full charge if you do under 40km. And if it is a cloudy day, an hour. I can let you take it for 3000 G-bits. It won't get off the ground without jet fuel but it can drive on flat ground well enough. It doesn't hold the road so well, but if you are a good driver, it won't be an issue.'
'Can you drive?' Renyke asked Flex.
Flex laughed... 'Of course I can. But how far we going, might be better to get a horse'.
A scritter crawls across the floor and Jerome stamps on it. A black tar oozes from under his foot.
Jerome sees Renyke might be changing his mind about the deal.
'I will take TELL You got some TELL?"
The POS gets a signal......
...TELL: abbreviation of Tellurium, found in copper ore. Used in mobile phones, especially older versions where it was added to other metals improving their strength and hardness and reducing corrosion. Rare due to demise of traditional copper mines.
Renyke, feeling confused about whether to get the vehicle and how much the exchange was worth, asks POS for advice.
I am not programmed to have opinions and am unable to make a useful prediction using probability. I do not have access to data about the vehicle, it has no computerised system. The seller seems to be shield protected and I cannot assess his reliability. But Redact is within easy walking and running distance for a Mark 3 such as yourself.
Renyke looks at Flex and then at Jerome. A scritter is crawling up his boot and he throws it off with a kick. He feels a rising panic and a thumping in his chest which he does not recognise. Why was it so important that he not make a mistake? Why was he not able to understand the virtue or danger of the exchange?
Finally Renyke says, 'I will run.'
To be continued
© 2023 Sarnia de la Maré
Episodes with text
iServalan Show: A podcast covering topics like AI, culture, and music. Tale Teller Club Publishing: Produces and distributes audiobooks, ebooks, and short plays Music Therapy: Based on the theory of Rife Healing Vibrations, exploring resonance therapies. Tale Teller Kids: Under 5s and Under 8s
You can explore their enchanting world on their YouTube channel and Twitter. 🌟🎨📚🎶12
Animation Films by Tale Teller Club for the Book of Immersion Series are available on YouTube
All Episodes Playlist on YouTube